Gilderoy Lockhart
Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin - Third Class (possibly retracted), was a wizard, a Ravenclaw student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and later a famous wizarding celebrity who authored many books on dark creatures and his encounters with them. Prior to his tenure as Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry during the 1992–1993 school year, he received many prestigious awards, such as Order of Merlin, Third Class; Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League; and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award. He never actually did any of the heroic acts he claimed to have done but instead used his considerable talent in Memory Charms to force the actual people who had done them into forgetting what they did. Ironically, Lockhart lost his memory on 29 May, 1993 due to a backfired Memory Charm cast by Ron Weasley's damaged wand and he became a permanent resident of St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. Following his institutionalisation, he penned his final book entitled Who Am I? Biography Early life Quidditch robes.]] Little is known of Lockhart's early life, and considering his dishonesty, everything he says must be taken with a grain of salt. He claimed that he was once a nobody and, apparently, tried to get himself noticed as a child, but failed, although he developed a precocious talent for Memory Charms. He attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and was Sorted into Ravenclaw House. However, given his complete inability to cast simple spells, he may not have excelled in his studies. Lockhart also claimed that he was once a Seeker, suggesting that he played Quidditch, and offered to give Harry Potter private Quidditch lessons, an offer which Harry did not respond to. A photo he kept in his classroom showed him riding a broomstick and wearing Ravenclaw Quidditch robes, so it is possible that he was once on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, or else that he staged the photo to make it appear as if he had been. He also claimed that he had been asked to try out for the National Squad but turned the offer down to dedicate his life to, in his words, "eradicating dark forces." Career as an author After graduating from Hogwarts (it is unknown how he did so, seeing his poor academic abilities), Gilderoy Lockhart became an accomplished author. Tracking actual accomplished wizards and witches who did great deeds, Lockhart tricked them into revealing their courses of actions, then erased their memories with his Memory Charms and used what he learned from them to publish such great deeds in his own name and credits. His books were very popular, and he reserved a special quill of peacock feather just for book signings. He also received many awards for his supposedly great deeds, while managing to hide his fraudulence successfully. During the 1992–1993 school year, seven of his books were assigned to become textbooks for the Defence Against the Dark Arts course for Hogwarts school that year, which resulted in a very expensive book list. As a publicity stunt, Lockhart dragged Harry Potter into the limelight during his book-signing of the Magical Me, where the photographer kept taking pictures of the famous pair, and then gifted Harry with a brand-new set of all his books that were required for school, along with his autobiography. Harry gave them to Ginny Weasley, both because he could afford his own set and also because he did not particularly cherish his interaction with Lockhart, but instead felt embarrassed from all the unwanted attention that Lockhart attracted for him. Unaware of Harry's resentment and forfeiture of the gifted book set, Lockhart announced that he would become the professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts of Hogwarts, which was met with applause from the audience. Career at Hogwarts Early classes Being the only willing applicant for the cursed position, Gilderoy Lockhart became Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry during the 1992–1993 school year. His classroom and office at Hogwarts were decorated with pictures and portraits of himself (even one of himself painting another portrait of himself) which moved and smiled. He also decorated the office with copies of his publications. For his first lesson, he gave his second-year class a test which had nothing to do with defence, but instead concerned his autobiography, Magical Me and the parts of his books just referring to him. Although he claimed it was a "little quiz," it ran for three pages with fifty-four questions. He then proceed to release a cage full of Cornish Pixies into the classroom, causing a large amount of pandemonium, then irresponsibly telling Harry, Ron, and Hermione to clean up after the mess while running back into his office. He was not popular among his fellow Hogwarts staff members and constantly gave them unsolicited pieces of advice on their specialties. They found him extremely obnoxious and could not take him seriously as a professor. Even Rubeus Hagrid, the gamekeeper, who usually refrained from criticising teachers, showed public disdain for Lockhart. Many male students, such as Ron Weasley, also considered Lockhart to be annoying and incompetent, and gave him very little respect outside of his presence. However, Lockhart's charms had attracted many schoolgirls such as Hermione Granger and Susan Bones. After the pixie chaos, Lockhart did not bring any more live creatures into class, but instead read from his books and re-enacted several portions of his "achievements," sometimes dragging Harry to help him with it. The only reason Harry agreed to do so was to get a signed permission from Lockhart for a book in the Restricted Section of the library, which he signed without even paying attention to what book they wanted. Due to Lockhart's overall poor performances, the class did not learn anything about true defence, and Ron claimed that he only learned not to set pixies loose, and would have dropped the course had he been allowed to. Irritating Harry Potter For the majority of the year, Lockhart kept hounding on Harry, trying to use him to boost his own fame, much to Harry's humiliation and irritation. Lockhart made it look as though Harry was trying to use his fame of defeating Lord Voldemort to make a name in the wizarding world, that the Flying Ford Anglia he rode on to school was a publicity stunt, and that he was enjoying his companionship with Lockhart and ignored much of Harry's attempted contradictions to these ridiculous hypotheses. Lockhart personally requested Harry to help him answer his fan mails for detention, while bombarding Harry with his advices for fame, and thought Harry would think of this as a treat, much to the contrary. In fact, Harry practically begged Profesor McGonagall to help Ron's detention in assisting Argus Filch in cleaning the Trophy Room instead, though the strict Transfiguration teacher refused. Harry then suffered several long hours of dull boredom, addressing envelopes. When Harry heard mysterious voices during this detention, Lockhart thought Harry was merely tired. After a Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin, in which the Gryffindor Seeker Harry Potter had his arm broken by a rogue Bludger, Lockhart offered to help repair his arm, while ignoring Harry's refusal, but ended up removing all the bones in Harry's arm. Lockhart founded a short-lived duelling club for students. He made a fool of himself at the very first meeting by firstly being disarmed by Severus Snape and then claiming that he allowed Snape to do so. He also angered a snake conjured by Draco Malfoy by launching it into the air rather than vanishing it, causing it to aim at Justin Finch-Fletchley. When Hermione Granger was in the hospital wing for a malfunction dosage of Polyjuice Potion, Lockhart sent her a get-well card, with an unnecessarily long introduction of himself as a signature. Hermione slept with this under her pillow, much to Ron Weasley's disgust. Valentine's Day and the Chamber of Secrets .]] During Valentine's Day, Lockhart, wearing lurid pink robes, completely redecorated the Great Hall with pink flowers and raining heart-shaped confetti as a morale-booster to cheer up the mood against the Chamber of Secrets incident, much to the disgust of Ron Weasley and the teachers. Lockhart received at least forty-six valentines, one of which was from Hermione Granger, and made insensitive comments about Entrancing Enchantments and Love Potions towards Professors Flitwick and Snape, respectively. This made Flitwick bury his face in his hands in embarrassment, and Snape look as though he would force-feed poison to anyone who dare ask him for a Love Potion. He even had dwarfs wear golden wings and carry harps to deliver valentines throughout the school, which they do (even if they have to do so forcibly), much to Harry's embarrassment when one forced him to listen to one from Ginny Weasley by knocking him down. When the Chamber of Secrets was opened, Lockhart made false claims about that he knew where the Chamber was and what the monster of Slytherin is all along. He even claimed that he knew Rubeus Hagrid was guilty all along when the Minister for Magic arrested the former. While the other teachers were serious and tense from all the attacks, Lockhart was the only one who remained relaxed and uncaring about these security measures. In one instance walked up to a scene with a cheery personality and stated, "Sorry I'm late, what did I miss?" On 29 May, 1993, when Ginny Weasley was taken into the Chamber of Secrets, the other teachers told Lockhart to go down to the Chamber and deal with the monster, in response to his arrogance and many claims that he knew how to solve the problem. Instead of trying to rescue Ginny, Lockhart attempted to run away from the school, but was caught by Harry Potter and Ron Weasley when they came to his office to give him information regarding the Chamber. Harry and Ron forced Lockhart to go down to the Chamber with them. There, Lockhart seized Ron's broken wand and attempted to perform a total Memory Charm on Harry and Ron. The wand backfired and the charm hit Lockhart instead, causing him to lose all of his memories and become a permanent resident of St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. His departure from school was met with the joy and celebration of many students and teachers. Despite his incapacitation, Lockhart continued his career as an author, after a fashion, writing the book Who Am I? Permanent incapacitation incident.]] On Christmas, 1995, Harry Potter saw Lockhart at St. Mungo's in the Janus Thickey Ward. He had regained his memory to the extent that he could write with joined-up letters, and still enjoyed signing autographs. Ron felt somewhat guilty, since his malfunctioning wand was responsible for damaging Lockhart's memories, but Harry felt less sympathetic, for it was Lockhart's attempt to remove their memories in the first place that resulted in this backfire. Overall, Harry observed Lockhart had not changed much and voiced this opinion, making Ginny giggle. The Healer who looked after Lockhart, Miriam Strout, stated he never got visitors, suggesting that his family was either dead or did not care for him, or consists of only Muggles. However, Lockhart still received fan mail including weekly letters from Gladys Gudgeon, though he had no idea why. He also kept his peacock-feather quill so that he could keep signing autographs, although it had became somewhat battered by that time. Though his memories were recovering at a slow but steady rate, he never fully recovered. It is possible Lockhart remained in the hospital for the rest of his life. Physical description '' book.]] Gilderoy Lockhart was a wizard with wavy blonde hair and particularly straight and shiny teeth. He usually smiled to show off his perfectly good teeth, and it earned him the Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award. He was known for wearing flamboyant and flashy robes in a wide assortment of colours. Housewives such as Molly Weasley and teenage girls such as Hermione Granger and Susan Bones found him especially attractive. However, when showing his cowardice, Lockhart's handsomeness was lost, as he looked weak-chinned and weedy in the absence of his usual toothy smile. Personality and traits Gilderoy was extremely vain and highly self-obsessed. He claimed to have done many great deeds, though in actuality he was a fraud and merely took credit for other wizards and witches' accomplishments. He also made claims and suggestions, whether about other people's professions or in times of danger, in order to make himself look more important and powerful than he truly was. His attempts to earn himself more fame also led him to attempt spells without fully understanding them (such as removing Harry's bones instead of mending them, and launching a snake into the air instead of vanishing it). It is also speculated that he invented some incantations and names for spells that do not actually exist, such as Peskipiksi Pesternomi, the Transmogrifian Torture, and the Homorphus Charm. Lockhart's narcissism and insensitive suggestions irked most of the people he encountered who were not included among his fans. His unprofessional behaviour earned him the dislike of the Hogwarts faculty, as well as many of the students. Lockhart was overall considered a joke by Hogwarts, and when he left due to memory loss, the majority (if not the entirety) of the school was elated to see him go. He also seemed to be completely oblivious to the reactions he elicited from other people, or misinterpreted them completely. When Ron looked revolted at his ostentatious peacock quill, Lockhart thought Ron was admiring it. He ignored Harry's many attempts to contradict his theories of enjoying his company and attention, as well as Harry's pleas for Lockhart to leave his broken arm alone, and also completely failed to notice the looks of hatred he received from the rest of the faculty for his ignorance. He asserted that Hogwarts was safe from the monster of Slytherin after Hagrid was arrested, claiming extra security was no longer necessary, and though proven wrong almost immediately, Lockhart stubbornly refused to retract his earlier claims, and continued to complain about how the extra security was tiring him out. When faced with true danger, Gilderoy showed his true cowardice. He attempted to flee from Hogwarts when the other teachers pressured him into entering the Chamber of Secrets after Ginny Weasley's abduction. Even after the location of the Chamber's entrance was discovered, he was willing to leave Ginny Weasley to die, attempting to modify Harry and Ron's memories to cover himself. Despite his lack of ability in other areas of magic, Lockhart was skilled in Memory Charms, and was conniving enough to deceive other wizards and witches to thoroughly reveal their work to him before erasing their memories and claim the credits for himself. He also appeared to have been a skilled writer, publishing many books consisting primarily of his embellishments of other people's achievements, taking credit for them as his own. Given his propensity for lying, however, it cannot be said for certain that Lockhart himself actually wrote any of the books. Lockhart's sorting into the Ravenclaw house was also strange, as he did not show the intelligence that characterise its students. However, the Sorting Hat does take into consideration the wishes of the students, as in the case of Hermione Granger and Harry Potter. It also may have sorted him into Ravenclaw because of his ability to affect the minds of others and while he was not intelligent himself, Lockhart did have a talent for using spells that affected other peoples minds. Magical abilities and skills , that, according to him, was expensive.]] Lockhart was not a skilled wizard, despite being sorted in the intellectual-encouraging Ravenclaw house. * Memory Charms: The only magic that Lockhart could perform without fail is the Memory Charm, to which he uses to erase the memories of others to gain his fame. He claims that he is gifted in the spell, and is the one thing he can truly take pride in. * Quidditch (possibly): Lockhart claimed to have once been a Seeker, and was offered a position in the International Quidditch Team. He owned a picture, depicting him in Ravenclaw Quidditch robes, making it possible that he played for the House team. However, given his dishonesty, this claim is debatable. He offered Harry training with this "fact", which Harry quickly refused. * Inappropriate Spell usage: Lockhart has demonstrated that he cannot use spells correctly, and that he usually invents them on the spot. The known ones are: Peskipiksi Pesternomi, Brackium Emendo, and Alarte Ascendare. All of them cause either nothing or disastrous effects to occur. * Fashion: Observing his flamboyant clothes, it's not difficult to imagine him as an expert of fashion and an usual reader of fashion magazines. Furthermore, he received Britain's Best Dressed Wizard Award sometime before 1992. Considering that his secret ambition is to market his own range of hair-care potions, he may also be an expert on hair care and, possibly, make up. * Magical Knowledge: Lockhart has made many claims regarding magical situations and his expertise in them, such as the Transmogrifian Torture and the Homorphus Charm, either when authoring his books or giving out pointers. Given that he merely stole credits from more able wizards, it stands to reason that Lockhart merely used whatever he learned from his victims to show off, and that he himself has no true understanding of what these facts meant. Furthermore, his accuracy with such facts may be exaggerated when he speaks of them, as they seem impossible by magical standards, such as the Homorphus Charm can cure lycanthropy, which is in truth an incurable condition. * 'Duellist: '''Lockhart considered himself to be a skilled duellist and he was in charge of the Duelling Club during his year at Hogwarts. However he was easily defeated by Severus Snape and later he was quickly disarmed by Harry Potter. Known published works Lockhart was an accomplished author, with twelve of his books shown. Although nine of them were supposed to be about eradicating dark forces, they were in fact just recollections of his experiences (of which he stole from other people) and his personal profiles, somewhat an extension of his autobiography. He assigned seven of these books to be his textbooks for his Defence Against the Dark Arts course. All of these were published before his stint as a Hogwarts professor (except ''Who am I?). * Break with a Banshee * Gadding with Ghouls * Gilderoy Lockhart's Guide to Household Pests * Holidays with Hags * Magical Me (autobiography) * Marauding with Monsters * The Travel Trilogy * Travels with Trolls * Voyages with Vampires * Wanderings with Werewolves * Who Am I? * Year with the Yeti Relationships Fans Most of Lockhart's fans were composed of middle-aged housewives, such as Molly Weasley, and young schoolgirls, such as Hermione Granger and Susan Bones. They would fall for his good looks and ignore other aspects of his personality, like his general incompetence and the fact that most other people found him completely infuriating. Hermione, in fact, overlooked the terrible performances made by Lockhart over the year he "taught" her class, and insisted that he merely made the occasional honest mistakes. Lockhart's notable fans, such as Gladys Gudgeon and Veronica Smethley, regularly wrote him adoring fan mail. Once Lockhart was exposed as a fraud and suffered permanent amnesia, the majority of his fans most likely lost interest in him, though Gladys continued to send him letters. Hogwarts staff During the 1992–1993 school year, Lockhart taught Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, or rather, made an utter mess out of the subject due to his incompetence. Lockhart annoyed most of the teachers by making it look as though he was superior to them in every one of their fields, while proving otherwise with his consistently terrible performances. As such, his coworkers found him extremely obnoxious and could not take him seriously as a professor. Lockhart's insensitive nature embarrassed Snape and Flitwick on Valentine's Day, when he made comments about Love Potions and Entrancing Enchantments regarding them, respectively, while disgusting everyone else by just overdecorating the Great Hall, and releasing dwarfs throughout the school to deliver Valentines, interrupting classes in progress. Even Rubeus Hagrid, who normally would never have criticised a teacher, publicly expressed disdain for Lockhart. Lockhart, on the other hand, did not seem to notice the resentment the teachers had for him, and instead kept on annoying everyone. Professor Snape, in particular, disliked Lockhart for not only taking the teaching post he coveted so much, but also for his constant and presumptuous attempts to advise Snape with largely nonsensical suggestions. When Ginny Weasley was taken into the Chamber of Secrets, Snape immediately sent Lockhart to deal with the monster within. The other teachers agreed, in the hopes of scaring Lockhart away, especially considering he had walked in obliviously while the other teachers were devastated by Ginny's impending doom. According to Hagrid, the main reason for Lockhart's appointment was that he was the only applicant for the cursed position, and the other teachers were pleased to see him leave at the end of the year, going as far as to join in the students' applause of the announcement. Hogwarts students Lockhart had a mixed relationship with the students of Hogwarts: about half of them admired him for his celebrity status, while the other half resented him for being obnoxious and fake. However, by the end of the year, when Lockhart revealed his own fraudulence and left school due to his accidental self-induced amnesia, pretty much every student gave their round of applause at the news. The half of the students who initially admired him were mostly girls like Hermione and Susan, who fell for his good looks, and people who actually believed in the accomplishments in his books, such as Justin Finch-Fletchley and Colin Creevey. They remained ignorant of Lockhart's true colours, even when he revealed them little by little throughout his terrible performances. When he was finally exposed as a fraud, they most likely abandoned their faith in him. Much like most of the faculty, the other half of the students simply found Lockhart to be annoyingly unpleasant. Ron Weasley, who was already annoyed since the book-signing at Flourish and Blotts made it look as though his family was unimportant, saw Lockhart for what he truly was during their first lesson, when the professor gave a test completely irrelevant to the subject, and then released a boisterous group of pixies he was unable to contain. This dislike escalated to hate when Lockhart attempted to leave Ron's sister, Ginny to die in the Chamber of Secrets, while Lockhart himself fled; Ron ruthlessly forced Lockhart to go first into the Chamber as a test subject and ordered him to stand up when the cowardly professor collapsed from fright. Ron was pleased when Lockhart was dismissed, though he also felt somewhat guilty, as it was his wand that caused Lockhart to lose most of his memories. Harry Potter particularly despised Lockhart for dragging him into the spotlight against his will, beginning with the book-signing during which Lockhart made a spectacle out of Harry as a publicity stunt, and for making Harry seem as though he was constantly seeking attention. Lockhart only further infuriated Harry by doing far more damage than help when he removed Harry's arm bones instead of mending them when they were broken by Dobby's tampered Bludger. Neither Harry nor Ron had any qualms about attacking Lockhart and forcing him to enter the Chamber of Secrets, and they even made him go first as a buffer for any approaching harm. Harry felt no sympathy when Lockhart lost his memories after his Memory Charm backfired, as it was entirely his fault for attempting it on Harry and Ron in the first place. Behind the scenes .]] * Lockhart is portrayed by Irish actor Kenneth Branagh in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets; he was originally to be portrayed by Hugh Grant, but due to scheduling problems he was replaced. One of Grant's middle names is, ironically, "Mungo". * J. K. Rowling has made it known that Gilderoy Lockhart is the only character in the series to be based upon a real person, and claims that she "barely exaggerated" the personality. She has refused, however, to specify who that is. * A rumour circulated that the character of Gilderoy Lockhart was based on J. K. Rowling's ex-husband, but this was roundly refuted on her website. She termed the rumour "toxic", "hurtful," and "damaging." * Lockhart's movie version seem to be more likable and comical than his book version, as he was willing to clear Harry from Snape's insinuations that Harry was involved in Mrs. Norris' petrification, informing that Harry was in detention with him. It may be due to the fact that Lockhart's useless classes and his most annoying of Harry were cut from the film, but his fraudulence and willingness to let Ginny die in the Chambers still preserves him as detestable. * Lockhart was in an early draft of the ''Order of the Phoenix'' film, as he was in the book, but was written out of the final version. Had he remained, it would have been the first time Kenneth Branagh and ex-wife Emma Thompson were in the same film together since their divorce in 1995. * Lockhart, despite being a Ravenclaw student (which encourages students with intelligence), does not show to be very brilliant. In fact, he may well be the opposite, seeing his complete inability to cast even the simplest spells. However, he does show the good-looks that attribute to the students of that house. It should be noted however, that while in his youth, though he probably possessed the intelligence to gain entry to the house, he chose to focus his energies on deception rather than study. * When Lockhart suffered memory loss, he seemed to have forgot about magic being real, as expressing Fawkes's flying as "just like magic". This, coupled with his possibly muggle relatives not visiting him at St. Mungo's, might indicate that he was originally a muggle-born with no knowledge of magic. * In Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4, after losing his memory, Lockhart starts making tea. * In Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4, Lockhart is the only teacher who is referred to by their first name. Etymology Gilderoy is defined as a highwayman known for being handsome. May also come from the word "gilded," which is defined as having a "pleasing, showy appearance, which covers something of little worth." This is very fitting considering Gilderoy's supposed good looks covered up the truth about his inability to function as a powerful wizard. The name "Roy" is Old French for "regal one" or "king." J.K. Rowling stated in a radio interview with BBC 4 that she found the name Lockhart on a war memorial. Robert Lockhart is a world renowned psychologist whose particular interest is in the study of memory and levels of processing. He did a lot of research in this area in the late 1970's. He is well known for his work as a cognitive psychologist especially in the areas of human memory and problem solving. This fits because the only magic skills Lockhart was truly gifted in were memory charms. Robert Lockhart received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Sydney in 1961 and 1963.http://www.science.usyd.edu.au/about_us/fame_lockhart.shtml Lockhart is also a town in Australia near Wagga Wagga, which could be a reference to him having supposedly defeated the Wagga Wagga Werewolf in his book Wanderings with Werewolves. 'Lockhart' could also be possible play on words as he seems to have so many women's "heart locked" on him. Appearances * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film) * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game) * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game) * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince * Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 * The Wizarding World of Harry Potter External links * Extra information about Lockhart from J.K. Rowling Notes and references fr:Gilderoy Lockhart fi:Gilderoy Lockhart he:גילדרוי לוקהרט pl:Gilderoy Lockhart ru:Златопуст Локонс nl:Gladianus Smalhart es:Gilderoy Lockhart Category:Authors Category:British individuals Category:Defence Against the Dark Arts Professors at Hogwarts Category:Duelling Club Captains Category:Hogwarts employees Category:Hogwarts students Category:Males Category:Ravenclaws Category:St. Mungo's permanent patients Category:Wizards Category:Seekers